China, India should take strategic partnership to higher plane: Xi

New Delhi: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday expressed the hope that China and India will take their strategic and cooperative partnership to a higher plane. He said he had come to India with three goals which were aimed at strengthening the bilateral ties and building strong complementarity in the two economies.

"We plan to partner with each other to take our strategic and cooperative partnership of peace and prosperity to a higher plane," Xi said after being accorded a ceremonial reception at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The Chinese leader, who arrived here last night from Ahmedabad where Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted a dinner for him, said the first purpose of his visit is to carry forward the friendship between the two countries.

"China and India are both ancient civilisations with thousands of years of friendly interaction with each other. We also admire and respect each others' civilisation. It is important that we translate the friendly contacts and make sure that we will follow what we promise each other," Xi, who was flanked by President Pranab Mukherjee and Modi, told reporters.

Xi, who inspected a guard of honour by the three services, said his second goal is to deepen the cooperation. "Both China and India are emerging markets. It is important that we increase cooperation so that the people of China and India are benefited from it".

The two countries, he said, should also focus on core areas. The visiting President said that his third goal is to pursue development together as both the countries had development as their priority.

"It is important that we deepen our relationship and develop a close developmental partnership," he said. Describing China and India as the world's two largest developing countries and emerging markets, he said, "We are also two important forces in increasingly multi-polar world. Therefore, our relationship has strategic and global significance."

Xi said the two countries can work with each other on common development to benefit the people of the two countries. "Through this visit, I hope to work with Indian leadership to build strong relations between China and India and to partner with each other to take our strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity to a higher level."